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Why Become a Teacher?
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Why become a teacher? By Afra al Kahira
Well obviously, not everyone will want to be a teacher no matter how long they’ve been dancing, and I
think we have all met someone whose enthusiasm got the better of them and they started teaching too
soon into their dance career.
So for those us who are already teachers – what motivated us to begin teaching? My teaching career
began when I was asked to fill in for another teacher. I’d not really been dancing long enough, but I had a
background and training to teach other genres so I did at least know something about teaching
techniques. It did seem a daunting responsibility though and I soon discovered that there was a lot more
to it than just turning up with a few LPs (yes, it was that long ago!) and teaching some basic movements.
Until then I’d not had any experience of the necessity to teach within a cultural context and 20 odd years
ago with no internet and hardly any video recordings available I was hard put to answer many of the
questions posed by my eager students. It was at this point that as I began to expand my expertise both as
a teacher and a performer, I became excited about the opportunities that teaching presented me. Here
was a dance form that required research – it actively fed my love of history and language in a way that
ballroom dancing, aerobics and jazz were never able to do. This gave birth to a passion that is still with me
today.
It wasn’t the main reason why I became a teacher though – I already knew that I loved teaching almost as
much as performing from my experiences with other genres. However, here was a subject that seemed to
offer something more than just teaching the movements and how to appreciate/interpret the music
I no longer teach weekly classes but I did so for 17 years and putting aside all the usual problems of
paperwork and such like, I can honestly say that I loved every moment! There is nothing more uplifting
than driving home from a class knowing that your students had ‘got’ whatever you had been teaching that
evening. Their happy smiles when they had an ‘aha’ moment are precious gems that I will always cherish.
I am lucky in that many of my former students have gone onto to be a real credit to me – wonderful
teachers and performers of whom I am proud to say I have taught to dance.
For me personally there is
something deeply satisfying in the role of teacher and mentor. Good teachers enjoy nurturing their
students, encouraging them to develop their own dance personalities and provide them with the
information, support and opportunities necessary to realise their full potential as performers. This is an
important aspect of the ASMED teacher training course* - teaching skills are obviously the backbone but I
also only take on trainees who have a real passion about wanting to see their own students grow and
develop as individuals. They need to care about the people and not the money – sadly there are far too
many ‘teachers’ out there who see teaching as primarily a tool for making money and forget the
importance of the points mentioned above.
What about the bad reasons for becoming a teacher? Sometimes you just end up falling into it. Perhaps
your teacher is moving and as the most experienced dancer you get asked if you will fill the vacancy. Not
always a bad thing per se, but if you have the role thrust upon you it is easy to get sucked into just
teaching the basics and never ever updating and expanding on your own knowledge which leads to all
sorts of problems both for the teacher and the student. The good teachers rise to the challenge – they go
to workshops, buy study materials (DVD, books, music etc) and they keep in touch with the dance
community as a whole so that they teach safely, informatively and are respectful of our art form.
The bad ones? Well sadly there are quite a few of those out there. These are the ones that make the
mistake of thinking that because the outgoing teacher said that they were ready to teach, that they don’t
need to know much else. They stay in a rut and often perpetuate bad habits in important areas like
posture because they ‘rest on their laurels’ and don’t do things like continue their own learning and
development. Or maybe they’ve done a few months of classes, see that their teacher has plenty of
students in the class and think – ‘oh there’s money to be made in this!’ So off they go having barely learnt
the basics to set up on their own!
Once upon a time I felt that these types of teacher
were in the minority but sadly I now feel that there
are an awful lot of them out there empire building
and putting profits before people. This is a worrying
trend and I can see troubled times ahead as the
legacy of poor posture, lack of cultural context and
generally shoddy teaching methods lead to poor
dancing technique and students performing in
inappropriate costumes, to music not suited to
Middle Eastern dance and in venues that do not
improve the dance’s image as a whole.
When I am approached about the ASMED teaching
course I always tell people that becoming a teacher
requires a great deal of commitment if you want to
do it properly. It is not for everyone, some fantastic
dancers make poor teachers and yet some average/
mediocre performers can be inspirational teachers.
Being a teacher is in itself an ongoing learning
process. A good teacher knows that they don’t know
everything, they understand that it is impossible to
be an ‘expert’ in everything and they spend time
updating their skills and learning new things. A good
starting point when learning anything at all is to
‘know what you don’t know.’ Then you can spend
the next 25 + years doing what I am doing – still
learning and growing, and still full of excitement
about the wonderful world that is our art form!
So if you are thinking about becoming a teacher, sit
down and ask yourself some basic questions:
• Do I have a passion for the dance?
• Do I know enough about the dance to start passing it on to other people?
• Have I been dancing long enough to understand
more than just the basics?
• Can I teach in a safe, professional and ethical
manner?
• Do I understand that the people I deal with
(students, other teachers, musicians etc) are
more important than the money I can make from
them?
• Do I understand that in order to teach I need to
continue to develop my own skills and that doing
so requires money, time and commitment
outside of the time that I actually spend teaching
my students?
If you can genuinely answer yes to all of the above
then maybe the role of the teacher is for you, but
remember that being a teacher is not an easy
option; it takes hard work and lots of commitment to
do it right. If you do take the right route to becoming
a teacher then I can guarantee you a wonderful
experience and a life long journey that will make you
a better dancer as a result!
*my own training course – there are other courses available. For more information about the ASMED Teacher Diploma click here.
© Afra al Kahira
This article first appeared in Taqasim Issue 57 |
